Tag Archives: soundgarden

#1451: Soundgarden – An Unkind

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I think it’s okay to get a little personal with you guys, lay down some serious stuff. I’m slowly coming out of a period in my life where I think I might have been going slowly insane. That period just happened to last for the majority of my 20s. My anxiety was through the roof. I felt unhealthy, very ugly too. I think it’s called, uh, depression. I’m still a little fragile, but I’m feeling a lot better these days. I listened to Soundgarden’s Down on the Upside right about when that period was in its early stages. 2018, out of university, working in my first job. It wasn’t the first time that I’d gone through the album. I think I initially downloaded it after Chris Cornell’s passing the previous year. But listening to it in the old office, over the speakers, the ideal setting was staged to focus my attention to the music and, to a lesser extent, the words. That’s just how I am, I’m sorry. Down on the Upside sort of became my album of the summer that year, which probably goes to show how I was feeling at the time. Dedicated a whole post about it, I was into it that much.

‘An Unkind’ is the penultimate track on the album. You think of Soundgarden, you’ll usually turn to vocalist, guitarist and usual songwriter Cornell for the goods. But people will know that the band’s secret weapon comes in the form of bass guitarist Ben Shepherd. On Down on the Upside, there are five songs that he wrote the music for to which Chris Cornell wrote the words. ‘An Unkind’ is a 100% Shepherd composition. Like ‘Half’ on Superunknown, another song solely written by Shepherd, ‘An Unkind’ takes proceedings into a stranger detour before everything comes to an end with the final-statement Cornell song. It also… rips really hard. I remember hearing the song through the speakers in my office that time. The guitars were alternating between those two notes in the verses, what felt like for an endless period of time. They were rather repetitive, maybe even a little annoying. But then the chorus came in, “Ooon the stooorm, it’s tiiime to gooo”. Hell yes. It fell into the verses again, and my mind was made up, I really liked this song. I played it 36 times on Spotify in 2018. I don’t think that counts the private plays I may have done too. It’s only two minutes long, but it scratches that itch for me, don’t know what to tell you.

I honestly think the song’s about the Last Judgment/Judgment Day, and how if the saints were to come down from the heavens and determine whether we go to heaven or hell, we wouldn’t be able to look them in the eye because of the shame in the atrocities we’ve committed on this earth. And the “On the storm…” bit is basically signifying the end of the world. Is that a reach? Maybe. But it’s my interpretation. In any case, “The human race sucks” is the general message Shepherd provides in his lyrics. Cornell delivers them brilliantly, as he always did. You can hear him take a huge gasp of breath before he belts out that first chorus. Ben Shepherd plays the guitar on the track alongside lead guitarist Kim Thayil, apparently because there’s a need for the pinky finger to execute the verse riff, which Cornell couldn’t get down. Matt Cameron’s drumming is a thrill. You guys ever noticed how his pattern sort of reverses on itself during the verses after he strikes the open hi-hat? That’s some good musicality. Sometimes I think this might be my favourite Soundgarden song. It won’t be for many other people, and that’s fine. But like the band say in the link before, it’s driving, it’s fast, the lyrics are strange and cool at the same time, and it does everything it needs to in the length it lasts for. Any more than two minutes, it’d just be wrong. And it leaves you wanting more, which probably explains why I listen to it so much.

#1326: Soundgarden – Switch Opens

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At the time of writing this, ‘Switch Opens’ is the second least played song from Soundgarden’s Down on the Upside on Spotify, only in front of the LP’s penultimate track, ‘An Unkind’. These two songs just so happen to be two of my favourites from it. When I was working in my first job out of uni in 2018, I had enough time during the day to go through artist’s discographies while I was behind the computer. I went through Soundgarden’s one week, and …the Upside became my favourite one by the band. So much so, I wrote a whole post dedicated to it. I’d had it on my own iTunes library, maybe since 2016 or something. But in 2018, I wasn’t in so much of a happy place, and I think the album suddenly made a ton of sense. The songs on there had much more of an impact than they did before. Hearing them on good loudspeakers probably helped too.

‘Switch Opens’ is one of the number of songs on the album where the music is written by bass guitarist Ben Shepherd with singer and guitarist Chris Cornell providing the lyrics. It’s a songwriting combination that works very, very well, with efforts like ‘Zero Chance’, ‘Never Named’ and ‘Dusty’ all coming out of it. The thing I like about ‘Switch Opens’ is how openly riffy it is. For lack of a better term. There’s the sort of circular chord progression going on during the verses, leading into the grungier, scaly riffs in the pre-choruses, then to the descending chords in the choruses before looping to those of the verses again. Ben Shepherd has a tendency incorporate these Indian-style qualities in his compositions, ‘Head Down’ and ‘Half’ from Superunknown being obvious examples. I’m a big fan of those two. They come through much more subtly on ‘Switch Opens’, and I’m all for it just the same.

As for Cornell’s lyrics, well, I still haven’t fully made up my own mind on his words. This guy from 20 years ago says it’s a song about change and bringing it about. When change occurs, the possibilities are endless. The switch is on. Those last two sentences are my own add-ons. But I’m all for that interpretation. There is a sense of optimism and wonder that I get from the tune. It’s the perfect mix of vocal and music to convey those sorts of feelings. Cornell sings it as only he could, very well, but also kind of wailing and droning in the verses and pre-choruses, before settling on a ‘Switch is on’ mantra that echoes around for the actual choruses. It’s a different delivery than the sheer power and grit he usually provides. It all works, though. I wonder how the band actually felt about the song. You can’t find a live performance anywhere online, which makes me think they at least thought it was okay, but nothing to be playing every night. Here’s a clip of drummer Matt Cameron singing/playing it on Seth Meyers years ago. That’s as close as we’ll get, I guess.

#1189: Soundgarden – She Likes Surprises

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For anyone who wasn’t living in the US and Canada at the time of the release of Superunknown, ‘She Likes Surprises’ could be found as the album’s final song as a bonus addition. The band didn’t think it really fit into the overall theme and feel of the actual record, which truly finishes with ‘Like Suicide’. But record companies back in the days of 1994 were really trying to push CDs out there, at the sacrifice of vinyl, and give an incentive for fans to buy them in stores. So Soundgarden’s record label requested ‘She Likes Surprises’ be on the editions released in Europe, Japan and Australia to compete with those available in North America. I don’t know who won in that competition. But for me, more music is an automatic victory. Might not match the vision of the artist, but sometimes you just have to let these thing pass.

I may have only heard this song for the first time a few years back. Maybe 2019 or so, when an urge to revisit Superunknown came to me. The album was already in my iTunes library, and I think after really getting into Down on the Upside the year before, it made sense to go back to what many would consider to be the band’s best. The way I remember it, I think I ended the album with ‘Like Suicide’ too and was quite hesitant to hear ‘Surprises’ out. Anytime there’s a bonus anything anywhere on a record, it’s usually the result of the record label’s request rather than the artist themselves. But after a while I thought “What the hell” and listened to it anyway. And I’m glad I did because at this point, I usually listen to ‘Surprises’ a lot more frequently than a number of other songs on the “official” album.

I thought the way it starts off was strange initially. A screeching guitar line alongside a plodding bass riff. It was a choice, but it’s how it goes. Matt Cameron’s drums come in along with Chris Cornell’s vocals. That guitar line carries on screeching before things get heavy for about two seconds before returning to normal like nothing happened. Things get heavy again as the band launches into the song’s chorus, with that ascending half-step scale on the guitar, and I think that’s where the song won me over. In fact, I like how much the song feels like it’s moving constantly from one direction to the other. It’s in 4/4 mainly, with maybe a bar of 5/4 and 10/4 here and there. But even in the standard time, notes are sometimes played on the upbeat to keep you on your toes. When it comes to the lyrics, it seems to be about a lady who doesn’t think too much of herself but gains gratification out of casual hookups. At least I think that’s what it’s going for. Saw an interpretation online that the ‘colourful disguises’ referred to in the song are condoms. Seems reasonable enough. The band never played the song live, but I’ve always appreciated the drumming in it, so I’ll embed this pretty accurate drum cover from YouTube.

#1149: Soundgarden – Rusty Cage

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You ask Soundgarden fans what their favourite album is and it’s a guarantee that the answer provided will mostly be between Superunknown or Badmotorfinger. At least that’s the feeling I get when I visit the subreddit for the band and see threads that usually praise the two. Down on the Upside is more for me, but that’s getting away from the point. I’ve listened to Badmotorfinger just the once, was a while back, I have to revisit it one day. But from what I remember, it was heavy. Heavy, heavy stuff. Stuff to properly thrash and headbang to in comparison to those other two aforementioned albums. And it all begins with ‘Rusty Cage’, a song that’s come to be one of the band’s most popular and the song that brings this ‘R’ series to an end.

‘Rusty Cage’ has been one of my favourites for a while now. Couldn’t even say how long for. I want to say since 2011/2012? Would have to get on the old, old computer to check. Though it was sometime before I got listening to Badmotorfinger, so I was well-acquainted with the track when listening to the full album. It was through watching its music video (above) on either MTV2 or MTV Classic, when that was a channel for a small bit, that I came to know it. Chris Cornell was all grimacing into the camera while lip-syncing the words, and the guitar riffage just never seemed to end. The song’s motion is continuously on the move. It’s like that X-Men scene where Vinnie Jones is Juggernaut and he’s running through the walls without feeling any effect whatsoever. It’s the musical equivalent. But then with a minute and a half left, it suddenly changes direction and trudges to an end through the grimy, nasty breakdown.

Think what the song’s message comes down to is a basic cry for freedom. Its narrator’s been put through the wringer too many times by someone. When they release themselves from this other person’s unforgiving grip, the narrator makes it clear that all hell is going to break loose. We’ll rule the day that their freedom comes. The big implication of the lyrics though is that this day is far, far away in the future. Very unlikely it’s going to happen any time soon. The wish of breaking free is just a dream. It’s a situation left unresolved, which I guess is why the band choose to end it in the unresolved manner it does. Helps to reinforce that lingering sense of yearning and all. Times like these when I think about Chris Cornell and his passing. He’s missed immensely. Too sad.

So that’s it for the R’s. I’ll be back again. Next time with the S’s, which, along with the T’s will probably take me two years to complete. There’s a lot of songs that begin with those two letters, you know.

#1122: Soundgarden – Rhinosaur

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Would have been an exciting time to be a Soundgarden fan in 1996, right? I’ll hold my breath for any answers. But I see it this way. Superunknown and a song like ‘Black Hole Sun’ brought the band some deserved critical and commercial success in ’94. Must have gained a lot of fans just through them. Then ’95 comes around, they start recording a new album. And in the new year that new album’s first single is released. ‘Pretty Noose’ from the upcoming album, Down on the Upside. Fans let that song soak in. The band was back, new song, hooray, hooray. Then the album arrives a month and a bit later. With ‘Pretty Noose’ being its opener and a track that people were well-accustomed to, the wait for new-new music was officially over with the track that would follow it in the track list.

The feedback and fading guitar chords at the end of ‘Pretty Noose’ just begin to get out of earshot before things are woken up again with the sudden drum roll and guitar riff that opens up ‘Rhinosaur’, the second track from Down on the Upside. Fans of the band will know that when it came to the songwriting duties, though people would look to Chris Cornell as the frontman and main face, all four members could very much bring forward any ideas that could then be worked on. In this case, the music for ‘Rhinosaur’ was written by drummer Matt Cameron, who also attempted to do vocals on it (according to this little interview the band did for promo) but found they were so “awful” that he was pleased when Cornell came along to take over. I mean, if you want someone to do vocals for your song, you could have a lot worse choices than Chris Cornell.

The song consists of the ascending and descending scales, each guitar in the frame playing the same sequence of notes in unison, as Matt Cameron keeps a steady beat – 3/4 time for those counting out there – and Cornell sings from the perspective of someone or something who feels at their most powerful when in the bleakest of situations. I’ve always especially enjoyed the rhythm of the song. It’s in 3/4 as I said before, but the way the guitar riffs rise and fall in this sort of cycle always gets my head moving in all sorts of directions. The start/stop dynamic of the chords during the chorus, where the timing shifts from 3/4 to 4/4, always get a screw-face from me. And then, in a sudden turn of events, things go into double-time for the instrumental break where Kim Thayil wilds out for his guitar solo before the band cascade into the final chorus and bring proceedings to a close. If first-time Upside were already happy with ‘Pretty Noose’, I think ‘Rhinosaur’ only solidified their faith that another superb album was in their hands.